This invention relates to apparatus for handling articles and particularly the invention relates to apparatus for rearranging the pattern of articles as they are being transported from one position to another.
The particular environment for which the invention was developed is an uncasing apparatus wherein cases containing patterns of bottles are indexed to a position alongside the apparatus. The apparatus has a carriage containing a pattern of lifting devices and a mechanism for moving the carriage between a position overlying the case and a position overlying a conveyor which carries the uncased bottles off for further processing.
In a case, a typical pattern has four bottles in the transverse direction and three bottles in a longitudinal direction. It is desired to remove that pattern of bottles from each case and deposit the bottles onto a conveyor in a 2.times.6 pattern, that is, two bottles in a transverse direction and six bottles in a longitudinal direction.
Prior the present invention it had been the practice simply to uncase bottles directly by lifting a 3.times.4 pattern out of the case and depositing that 3.times.4 pattern onto a conveyor. The conveyor would carry the 3.times.4 pattern, or four rows of bottles into expensive and complex combining apparatus wherein the four rows of bottles would be converted to two rows.
It has been an objective of the invention to eliminate the combining machine and operation and to provide transferring apparatus wherein the pattern of 3.times.4 bottles is converted to a pattern of 2.times.6 bottles as the bottle lifting carriage moves from the case to the conveyor onto which the bottles are deposited.
The objective of the invention is achieved by providing three carriage parts, namely, a center carriage having a 2.times.3 pattern of lifting devices and two outboard carriages each having a 1.times.3 pattern of lifting devices. The outboard carriages are initially positioned along the longitudinal edges of the center carriage thereby creating a 3.times.4 pattern. A mechanism is provided for moving the center carriage longitudinally with respect to the outboard carriages and a cam and track mechanism is provided to drive the outboard carriages transversely toward each other when the longitudinally moving center carriage passes the outboard carriages.
With this mechanism, when the 3.times.4 pattern of bottles is gripped by the devices on the respective carriages and lifted out of the case, the center carriage is moved longitudinally during transfer to the conveyor. The motion imparted to the center carriage causes, through the cam and track mechanism, a transverse movement of the outboard carriages. When the shift of carriages has been completed, a 2.times.6 pattern is achieved.
While the invention is being described as an uncaser wherein a 3.times.4 pattern is converted to a 2.times.6 pattern, it should be understood that the mechanism is applicable to other article handling apparatus wherein articles of one pattern are rearranged, during transfer, to another pattern.